We traveled to northeast Bali to stay at a small town called Tulamben so we could go scuba diving. We were PADI certified last year in Hawaii, and we really liked our diving instructor Alexia Benrezkellah. We kept in touch with her and she gave us tons of great suggestions for diving, including this quote "you must dive the USAT Liberty wreck off Tulamben. It is amazing!" Here's a painting of the wreck we saw in a dive shop here, showing that the boat is lying on its side. (There are scuba booties on a shelf under the painting.)
The Liberty was a 400 foot long cargo ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese during WWII. Trying to salvage the cargo, the ship was towed towards Singapore, but it took on too much water so was abandoned on the beach at Tulamben. There it sat until 1963 when the Mt Agung volcano erupted. Lava dragged the wreck 40 feet offshore, breaking it into 3 pieces. Since then coral has grown all over the submerged ship and many types of fish have made it their home. Here’s a photo of sunrise close to the wreck.
In this blog post we'll share underwater photos and our best guesses as to the types of fish we saw on our dives. One morning we got up early so we could be in the water close to sunrise, as this is when the daily gathering of the Bumphead Parrotfish takes place at the Liberty. We saw over 30 of these 4-5 foot long fish. They use their foreheads to break the coral, then chew the coral with their huge teeth, spitting out the leftover sand.
Here you can see the mid section of the ship, with what's left of two ladders. It was so interesting to see how the salt water and currents have transformed the ship.
This Emporer Angelfish was about 15 inches long.
We saw two Blue-Spotted Stingrays. The one on the left was smaller and his blue spots were quite pronounced. The other had a body about 20 inches long and was swimming along the sandy floor at a depth of about 75 feet.
Here is a Bignose Unicornfish. We liked his long dual tail. Behind him you can see the wreck.
These are Lunar Fusilier, which are neon blue fish, swimming in a large school at the wreck. This photo was taken during a mid morning dive.
During an afternoon dive we saw this turtle on the wreck. The only bad behavior we saw by other scuba divers was when one guy tried to hold onto this turtle for a ride.
During our three days of diving we had Mega as our guide. He has made over 500 dives on the Liberty!
We rode in the back of a truck for a short distance to get to the Coral Gardens dive spot.
Probably the hardest part of scuba diving is walking from the rocky shore into the water with 50 lbs of equipment and weights strapped to our backs! Here we are getting ready to go under water.
We loved diving at Coral Gardens and made two dives here. It was shallower than the Liberty (20-40 feet vs. 60-80 feet), which made it easier to see and photograph. There were so many small fish hanging out around this metal "cage".
And there was a school of Anthias swimming above these metal rods.
This fish looks like Nemo, who is actually a False Clown Anenomefish. These fish have a symbiotic relationship with their anenomes, and have developed immunity to the anenome's stinging tentacles.
This Clownfish first swam at Pete somewhat aggressively then retreated. We wondered what he was doing so far away from his anenome.
We didn't see any Blue Tangs (like Dory in the movie Finding Nemo), but we did see a lot of Moorish Idols flitting around.
Kristina is posing next to a stone statue of Tara, who is said to be the mother of all Buddhas. In Tara's lap there is a bubble tip anenome, but we didn't see a Clownfish. In Coral Gardens there are other statues, including a Buddha, a guard lion and lots of lanterns. We found it beautiful!
This is a school of jack fish named Bigeye Trevallys. We saw them on both dives. The school was quite large and probably had more than a thousand fish in it. Mega banged two rocks together to get their attention, and the school swam close to us. It was awesome!
This Raccoon Butterfly is named for its mask. They usually travel in pairs. We found the yellow colored fish to be the most photogenic.
This Diagonal Banded Sweetlips had scales that looked like fur.
It's a bit hard to see these Spotfin Lionfish. They had impressive white spines and were about 6 inches long.
The Day Octopus is the most common octopus in the western Pacific. Mega prodded this shy creature to come out of his hiding spot so we could get a good look. The octopus was disguising himself to look like a white rock so he blended in, then he changed into this dark color and quickly swam away and into another hole.
We saw this vibrant Coronation Cod on our way back in towards the shore.
Since Tulamben exists primarily for scuba diving tourists we didn't expect to get authentic Indonesian food here and our meals have been bland but healthy. But we did some research and found a place just outside of town that got good reviews. We were greeted by the owner named Wayan who made a fire in the garden and grilled snapper for us. It was served with a delicious Balinese barbeque sauce that was quite hot, so we drank beer to cool our lips and mouths.
The name Wayan means first born in Indonesian, and we have met many people with this name. We even met a Wayan Bon Jovi (who we assume added the Bon Jovi out of love for the musician). It took a while to cook the fish, so we had time to enjoy views of Mt Agung and the sunset. Rising to a height above 9,000 feet, it is the tallest mountain on Bali.
After three days of diving we were ready to look at sights on land. So we rented a scooter and headed south, enjoying beautiful view of rice terraces.
We saw a procession that is part of the Balinese Hindu tradition when someone dies. First in the parade were women carrying offerings. Next were these musicians who were playing music. And at the end were the men.
We visited Pura Lempuyang, which is a temple complex of five temples located on Mt Lempuyang, and is one of 9 key temple complexes in Bali. The temple represents the East direction. Here is the gate to Penataran Agung temple, the most elaborate of the five temples.
The temple name (Penataran Agung) indicates it has a view of Mt Agung. The mountain is hugged by clouds, but the top is visible through the split gateway. Split gateways (called candi bentar) are a common feature in Balinese temple architecture.
At the middle Temple, Pura Telaga Mas, a priest was blessing people with holy water.
We climbed up 1,770 steps through cloud and mist to reach the top temple, Pura Lempuyang Luhur, often seeing Balinese people with offerings climbing up to the top. Unfortunately the top was covered in clouds so we couldn't photograph the view. Here's a look from midway down the mountain looking east.
We also rode the scooter to Jemeluk village to go snorkeling.
We liked this painting on a wall, which we think is inspired by scuba diving. We are seeing all kinds of beauty in Bali!
The Liberty was a 400 foot long cargo ship that was torpedoed by the Japanese during WWII. Trying to salvage the cargo, the ship was towed towards Singapore, but it took on too much water so was abandoned on the beach at Tulamben. There it sat until 1963 when the Mt Agung volcano erupted. Lava dragged the wreck 40 feet offshore, breaking it into 3 pieces. Since then coral has grown all over the submerged ship and many types of fish have made it their home. Here’s a photo of sunrise close to the wreck.
In this blog post we'll share underwater photos and our best guesses as to the types of fish we saw on our dives. One morning we got up early so we could be in the water close to sunrise, as this is when the daily gathering of the Bumphead Parrotfish takes place at the Liberty. We saw over 30 of these 4-5 foot long fish. They use their foreheads to break the coral, then chew the coral with their huge teeth, spitting out the leftover sand.
Here you can see the mid section of the ship, with what's left of two ladders. It was so interesting to see how the salt water and currents have transformed the ship.
This Emporer Angelfish was about 15 inches long.
We saw two Blue-Spotted Stingrays. The one on the left was smaller and his blue spots were quite pronounced. The other had a body about 20 inches long and was swimming along the sandy floor at a depth of about 75 feet.
Here is a Bignose Unicornfish. We liked his long dual tail. Behind him you can see the wreck.
These are Lunar Fusilier, which are neon blue fish, swimming in a large school at the wreck. This photo was taken during a mid morning dive.
During an afternoon dive we saw this turtle on the wreck. The only bad behavior we saw by other scuba divers was when one guy tried to hold onto this turtle for a ride.
During our three days of diving we had Mega as our guide. He has made over 500 dives on the Liberty!
We rode in the back of a truck for a short distance to get to the Coral Gardens dive spot.
Probably the hardest part of scuba diving is walking from the rocky shore into the water with 50 lbs of equipment and weights strapped to our backs! Here we are getting ready to go under water.
We loved diving at Coral Gardens and made two dives here. It was shallower than the Liberty (20-40 feet vs. 60-80 feet), which made it easier to see and photograph. There were so many small fish hanging out around this metal "cage".
And there was a school of Anthias swimming above these metal rods.
This fish looks like Nemo, who is actually a False Clown Anenomefish. These fish have a symbiotic relationship with their anenomes, and have developed immunity to the anenome's stinging tentacles.
This Clownfish first swam at Pete somewhat aggressively then retreated. We wondered what he was doing so far away from his anenome.
We didn't see any Blue Tangs (like Dory in the movie Finding Nemo), but we did see a lot of Moorish Idols flitting around.
Kristina is posing next to a stone statue of Tara, who is said to be the mother of all Buddhas. In Tara's lap there is a bubble tip anenome, but we didn't see a Clownfish. In Coral Gardens there are other statues, including a Buddha, a guard lion and lots of lanterns. We found it beautiful!
This is a school of jack fish named Bigeye Trevallys. We saw them on both dives. The school was quite large and probably had more than a thousand fish in it. Mega banged two rocks together to get their attention, and the school swam close to us. It was awesome!
This Raccoon Butterfly is named for its mask. They usually travel in pairs. We found the yellow colored fish to be the most photogenic.
This Diagonal Banded Sweetlips had scales that looked like fur.
It's a bit hard to see these Spotfin Lionfish. They had impressive white spines and were about 6 inches long.
The Day Octopus is the most common octopus in the western Pacific. Mega prodded this shy creature to come out of his hiding spot so we could get a good look. The octopus was disguising himself to look like a white rock so he blended in, then he changed into this dark color and quickly swam away and into another hole.
We saw this vibrant Coronation Cod on our way back in towards the shore.
Since Tulamben exists primarily for scuba diving tourists we didn't expect to get authentic Indonesian food here and our meals have been bland but healthy. But we did some research and found a place just outside of town that got good reviews. We were greeted by the owner named Wayan who made a fire in the garden and grilled snapper for us. It was served with a delicious Balinese barbeque sauce that was quite hot, so we drank beer to cool our lips and mouths.
The name Wayan means first born in Indonesian, and we have met many people with this name. We even met a Wayan Bon Jovi (who we assume added the Bon Jovi out of love for the musician). It took a while to cook the fish, so we had time to enjoy views of Mt Agung and the sunset. Rising to a height above 9,000 feet, it is the tallest mountain on Bali.
After three days of diving we were ready to look at sights on land. So we rented a scooter and headed south, enjoying beautiful view of rice terraces.
We saw a procession that is part of the Balinese Hindu tradition when someone dies. First in the parade were women carrying offerings. Next were these musicians who were playing music. And at the end were the men.
We visited Pura Lempuyang, which is a temple complex of five temples located on Mt Lempuyang, and is one of 9 key temple complexes in Bali. The temple represents the East direction. Here is the gate to Penataran Agung temple, the most elaborate of the five temples.
The temple name (Penataran Agung) indicates it has a view of Mt Agung. The mountain is hugged by clouds, but the top is visible through the split gateway. Split gateways (called candi bentar) are a common feature in Balinese temple architecture.
At the middle Temple, Pura Telaga Mas, a priest was blessing people with holy water.
We climbed up 1,770 steps through cloud and mist to reach the top temple, Pura Lempuyang Luhur, often seeing Balinese people with offerings climbing up to the top. Unfortunately the top was covered in clouds so we couldn't photograph the view. Here's a look from midway down the mountain looking east.
We also rode the scooter to Jemeluk village to go snorkeling.
We liked this painting on a wall, which we think is inspired by scuba diving. We are seeing all kinds of beauty in Bali!
